quoted material :

---
Microsoft and MSN have a history of trying to stop people from using the Opera browser. When trying to access MSN.com using the Opera7 browser, there are two visible problems. First, for the user it looks like Opera7 has a serious flaw so that many lines are partially hidden. Second, the page shows less content than users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (MSIE) see.

The purpose of this page is to document, in technical terms, what is going on. Did the Opera programmers make grave mistakes? Or is it something wrong on the MSN site? If so, is the Opera browser targeted specifically? (Executive summary: no, yes, yes)
---

Why doesn't MSN work with Opera

I was pretty bummed when they whacked the Olivetti lab that was working on VNC, but some righteous Russian dude has picked up the slack AND added a boatload of features. Check it:

Local cursor handling
Efficient compression algorithms
Optional JPEG compression (Phat!)
Automatic SSH tunneling on Unix

I haven't tried it yet, but it looks great.

TightVNC: An Enhanced VNC Distribution

But Smith's spokesperson, Katherine Lister, says the congressman was motivated by a desire to foster innovation. "In no way, shape or form does Microsoft ever drive our technology policy," she said.

...

I remember a time when Microsoft didn't play the political game. Those days are gone for good. All it took was a little anti-trust muscle to get the palm greasing going. Makes you wonder who the real victim ultimately is. Granted, they probably would have started playing on their own terms at sometime in the future, but I digress...

Between Microsoft and Intel, it looks like Washington state has been officially bought and sold. Thank you Rep. Adam Smith for proving to me that there is no difference between a Democrat and a Republican. You support this for *WHAT* reason?

I need to find a country that sucks less than the United States. Any suggestions?

Letter: Free Software Hurts U.S.

"Another legend about the magical aspects of hacking, this one about hacking hardware rather than software, is told about a machine at MIT [9,7]. In this legend the storyteller comes across a mysterious switch on the side of the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10 computer. The switch has clearly been installed by a hacker and not a computer technician and is labeled by hand with one position marked ``magic'' and the other ``more magic.'' "

Historical and Magical Themes in Hacker Legends

While preparing to film a movie entitled A Night in Casablanca, the Marx brothers received a letter from Warner Bros. threatening legal action if they did not change the film’s title. Warner Bros. deemed the film’s title too similar to their own Casablanca, released almost five years earlier in 1942, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. In response Groucho Marx dispatched the following letter to the studio’s legal department.

Dear Warner Brothers,

Apparently there is more than one way of conquering a city and holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we contemplated making this picture, I had no idea that the city of Casablanca belonged exclusively to Warner Brothers. However, it was only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received your long, ominous legal document warning us not to use the name Casablanca.

It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, your great-great-grandfather, while looking for a shortcut to the city of Burbank, had stumbled on the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock (which he later turned in for a hundred shares of common), named it Casablanca.

I just don’t understand your attitude. Even if you plan or releasing your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don’t know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.

Groucho Marx to Warner Bros

New RPM book coming out in March.

Amazon.com: buying info: Red Hat RPM Guide

"WorldCom Inc. acknowledged this morning that a network problem in its Internet backbone was tripping up Web traffic across the country. "

TechNews.com

"Veepers is the new "smart character" solution from Pulse. Taking a single 2D photo or other character image and creating a photo-real, 3D "clone" of the original, complete with lip-synching and automated text-to-speech (TTS) functionality, Veepers adds a truly human element to myriad online experiences. Better yet, the process takes less than two minutes, and its simple, click-and-drag interface requires no programming or artistic expertise whatsoever. And since the resulting Veepers are only 60-100k in size, they load quickly onto any page, regardless of client connection speed. "

Pulse Veepers

autonomous ground vehicle race... stay tuned!

Darpa is hosting a contest!

"CAIRO, Egypt, Sept. 23 — Scientists using a robot have discovered yet another door deep inside the Great Pyramid, Egypt’s head archaeologist said Monday."

Robot finds another pyramid puzzle